37 Road Losses and a Pair of Green Skates: A Look at NHL Expansion Draft History
On the night of the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, let’s take a look at the history of Expansion Drafts in hockey.
On Wednesday night, the NHL will officially release the Seattle Kraken. With an NHL Expansion Draft like no other finally here, as the NHL’s newest franchise will begin to construct their roster for the 2021-22 season, fans, and analysts alike (including myself) are excited for the future of NHL hockey in Seattle.
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However, before we get to that point, let’s go back in time a bit, shall we?
It was October 6th, 2017. The Vegas Golden Knights were entering the third period in their first ever regular season game against the Dallas Stars, down 1-0. James Neal, a former 40-goal scorer with the Pittsburgh Penguins and consistent 20-goal threat, found himself entering the offensive zone on a delayed penalty.
Receiving a drop pass from defenseman Nate Schmidt, Neal let a wrister go from the slot which beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen for the Knights’ first ever goal. In spite of posting 25-19-44 totals over the course of Vegas’s inaugural 2017-18 season, as they made an unheard-of run to the Stanley Cup Final, Neal chose to head elsewhere come July 1st, signing with the Calgary Flames.
Since then, Neal has gone from being a reliable offensive threat to a stain on salary cap after salary cap, having been moved to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for another lengthy contract in Milan Lucic. After battling through injuries and poor performance in 2020-21, Neal’s future looks questionable, and a buyout seems to be on the cards. However, I feel as though that isn’t quite far enough, let’s go back a bit further.
While I could discuss Vegas’s first ever preseason goal, coming from undrafted acquisition Tyler Wong in what was a three-goal night, there isn’t really a whole lot of note to add. Wong was a talented over-ager coming out of the WHL, but simply never found his offensive touch in the AHL, ECHL, or to an extent in the KHL, where he continues to play for Kunlun Red Star. No, instead, let’s go back, to October 9th, 1974.
1974 Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals didn’t exactly have the largest bounty of players to select from in the 1974 NHL Expansion Draft, but regardless found themselves in a tie early on in the first, in their first regular season game against the New York Rangers. New York was a powerhouse team at that time, with the likes of Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle, Rick Middleton, and Brad Park making up their potent offense.
However, the unassuming Capitals, dressed in their garish white pants and red, white, and blue jerseys, had other plans, at least initially. Facing Rangers goalie Eddie Giacomin coming down the wing, AHL scorer Jim Hrycuik cut towards the net before putting the puck in off a rough play in front.
A former star scorer for the Hershey Bears in 1973-74, Hrycuik was an early offensive contributor for the Caps as their season got away from them early on. However, as he slowly fell into scoring droughts and a lack of confidence, those contributions vanished, and so too, did his spot on the roster, retiring after just one more AHL season in 1975-76.
Now, Hrycuik is more what I was looking for when I sat down to write this piece, which might catch a few of the less historically inclined viewers off-guard. I think it goes without saying that Vegas has certainly set a precedent for NHL Expansion teams that many are expecting Seattle to match, but, in spite of the numerous star players available to them, I feel as though it’s a bar that simply can’t be reached, at least immediately.
Then again, I don’t expect, rather, hope and, to an extent, pray that Seattle doesn’t play to the standards of that 74-75 Capitals team, though I don’t think any NHL, AHL, ECHL, or any professional or semi-pro league in the world ever could. With a dreadful 8-67-5 record that season, the Capitals set new standards for dismal performance which, for the most part, haven’t been matched.
Amongst other lows, a record 37-game road losing streak put things into perspective, before their first road win, a 5-3 decision over the similarly lousy California Golden Seals, and their similarly garish, green and white painted skates (yes really). Yet, as hard as it may be to believe, this is actually where NHL Expansion had it’s roots, and they were roots which were frequently torn up, buried, and replanted elsewhere.
Early & Humble Beginnings
The NHL’s history with different markets actually runs all the way back to the mid-1920s, when teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates (later Philadelphia Quakers) tried to expand the league to different, untested markets, with mixed to poor results. In the long-standing ‘Original Six’ era, the NHL cemented itself in a few proven markets which went through their own ups and downs as they tried to find their identity.
Come 1967-68 however, the league decided some changes were needed, and thus began the first NHL expansion, from six teams to twelve teams.
Of course, with the 32 NHL franchises around today, quite a lot has happened since then, with mixed results, some successful, some short-lived, and some disastrous in every sense of the word. In the 1970s, as the league continued expanding after a successful initial run, with teams like the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers finding success with a few Playoff appearances and, in Philadelphia’s case, Stanley Cup Titles, the NHL tried their hand in even more untested waters.
Did anyone call for some NHL hockey in Kansas City? How about Cleveland, maybe Atlanta? You know, twice? Well, apparently not. While most NHL Expansion teams managed to have some staying power over their initial seasons and beyond, teams like the Kansas City Scouts, Cleveland Barons, and well, the city of Atlanta (in this case the Atlanta Flames) were less fortunate, though, this was to be expected. These were markets that had their fanbases cemented in other sports, like baseball and football, and most didn’t really get the rules and style of play of ice hockey, and thus few showed their support (Gilles Meloche’s wicked mask aside).
Following this, aside from the NHL’s merger with the failed WHA start-up league in 1979, NHL Expansion was mostly limited as the league ran with what worked once more, with WHA stars like Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier giving the NHL a newfound legitimacy and star power in the world of pro sports. Then, ‘the trade’ happened.
The Great One in Hollywood
The motives behind Wayne Gretzky’s shocking move to the LA Kings in August of 1988 is a topic for another time, but regardless, the arrival of “The Great One” in Los Angeles certainly brought some needed firepower to what had been a fledgling market for the NHL, long removed from the days of Charlie Simmer and Marcel Dionne’s “Triple Crown Line”.
With Gretzky’s revival of the Kings, culminating in a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1992-1993, the NHL sought to expand once more, this time to a long untested market, the Sun Belt. It was October 7th, 1992, and the Tampa Bay Lightning were entering their first regular-season game against the Chicago Blackhawks, in the tiny, 11,000-capacity Expo Hall.
Chris Kontos hadn’t played in the NHL since the 1989-90 season, having never earned a fair shot in spite of posting solid numbers. After a year spent playing in Italy and for the Canadian National Team, the Toronto Native found himself making Blackhawks goaltender Ed Belfour’s night a living nightmare, posting four goals in Tampa’s 7-3 win.
While it would be a while before the Lightning and Head Coach Terry Crisp found their niche and later success, the NHL’s Sun Belt presence had been established, as was ever-growing. The 1995-96 Florida Panthers became the first team from those three NHL Expansion Drafts (1991, 92, and 93) to make the Stanley Cup Final, and before long the NHL’s North American presence was becoming stronger and stronger. By 1998, the league decided it was time for yet another Expansion, one which produced well, one less than successful result.
Mixed Results
Kelly Buchberger had long established himself as a veteran presence for the Oilers, but suddenly found himself as the helm of the NHL’s second incarnation in Atlanta, in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on October 2nd, 1999, potting the franchise’s first ever goal. The NHL hoped that their second stint in the city would be more successful, but amazingly, it wound up being even less so.
Along with taking what many consider to be the biggest bust in NHL history, Patrik Stefan, first overall, Atlanta had but one Playoff appearance to their name over their near 10-year history, before ultimately relocating to become the second incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.
All the while, the other two teams from those Drafts, the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets, found routine, consistent success early on, and are still around, even with questionable buyouts, a ton of dead cap, and an identity-crisis stricken roster. Minnesota managed a Conference Finals appearance in 2002-03, and the future seems bright as both franchises enter fresh rebuilds.
That brings us to today, or should I say, Wednesday, whereupon the Kraken will pick their initial roster and potential star players. As compared to the Chris Kontos’s and Jim Hrycuik’s of the past, Seattle has much more talent at their disposal, and with the price they paid to become the NHL’s newest team, that’s to be expected. Though, in that same sense, there’s a certain comradery and charm that came from those weaker rosters, even if they didn’t equate to team success early on.
Seattle coming into the NHL has doubtless brought back memories of the league’s previous moves to new markets, and GM Ron Francis will have everything and more at his disposable to make sure the Kraken’s big night comes up with a similarly big catch. Yet, just as the Atlanta Thrashers and Cleveland Barons of old led into the Cinderella runs of the Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild, so too, will the Seattle Kraken, have their chance to come up big, in a continuation of some long-standing, and similarly long-winded, NHL Expansion history.